1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to an electric can opener with a simple arrangement of a pivoting cutter wheel mechanism having at least one or more irregular peripheral portions in the form of lobes or flats with the mechanism being so oriented as to pull the cutter into the can to provide a stationary power pierce and then roll it to provide a smooth severing of the lid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electric can openers have become a common household appliance designed to a high degree of usefulness, cleanability, cut lid holding, and various forms of power pierce. The plow cutter, a pointed cutter piercing the can--like a can of motor oil is pierced by its attaching spout--has been replaced by the rolling cutter wheel which generally reduces the metal slivers inevitably produced during a cutting operation and which may drop into the food. One of the disadvantages of the rotating cutting wheel is difficulty of piercing the can top because of the large force required over that of the old pointed plow cutter which easily pierced the can. Nevertheless, numerous arrangements have been provided to provide a power pierce so that the energy of the driving motor is used to pierce the lid and avoid the large manual force by the user on the operating lever. Numerous power pierce arrangements have been provided and a typical one is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,121,285 of common assignment, which, in effect, gives the puncturing cutter a running start by rotating the can before puncturing the lid to power assist the actual puncturing. Another form of power pierce is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,485 which uses many parts in a different pivoting and lever arrangement whereby the piercing force is multiplied momentarily to pierce the can lid by the cutter wheel. Thus, power pierce per se is not new. Additionally, the use of non-round cutter wheels in order to take advantage of the piercing force of pointed or lobed surfaces is not new. Such a plow type square cutter for a can opener is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,439,418 which provides a large piercing force on one of the points but also has the defect of slivering common in plow cutters. Generally, non-round cutter wheels may take several forms such as the lobed cutter of U.S. Pat. No. 1,876,075 directed to a cutter per se.
It is the primary object of the invention to provide an improved power pierce for an electric can opener with a simple addition to put in conventional structure without the complexity of additional levers, pivoting arrangements, or inducing delays in the actual piercing of the lid.
Another object is to provide the power pierce structure by the use of a non-round cutter wheel oriented on its pivoted lever such that the cutter wheel is substantially stationary when it engages the can and is then pulled into a power piercing operation simply and easily to subsequently roll and sever the lid with no ragged edge.
It is a further object of the invention to linkage connect the automatic or cutter mechanism with a specially shaped cutter wheel which, with a simple single sliding switch actuator provides easy power pierce and start and stop operation with no additional structure.
The present invention is an alternate arrangement in the same general can opener structure shown in application Ser. No. 06/359,562 filed Mar. 18, 1982 of common assignment.